Association-dissociation of histone oligomers. A spin label study.

The spin label method has been used to obtain information about conformational changes of histone oligomers taking advantage of the fact that at a low ionic strength and in the presence of other histones about 45% of cysteine residues of histone H3 react with the 3-maleimido-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-1-pyrrolidinyloxyl spin label. For the labeled complexes H3-H4 and H nu the degree of immobilization of the spin label is a function of the ionic strength. This variation is identical for both complexes within a long range of ionic strengths, including the interval of 0.8-2 M NaCl, under which conditions interactions are known to exist between the tetramer (H3)2 (H4)2 and the dimer (H2A) (H2B). This finding suggests a negligible influence of the dimer for modifying the cysteine residue environment of histone H3 on octamer formation. GuHCl treatment at high ionic strength of the labeled complexes gives rise to a non-lineal increase in the degree of mobility of the spin label. This increase, at low GuHCl concentration (0-0.5 M GuHCl), is interpreted as showing a lowering in rigidity for the Cys residue environment, without affecting the general stability of the tetramer (H3)2 (H4)2. At higher GuHCl concentration (2-3 M GuHCl) the increase in the spin label mobility is related to a dissociation of the complexes in single histones. Our results are consistent with the view that the overall structure of the tetramer, as well as its conformational changes during complex structuration or denaturation, are not strongly affected by the presence of the dimer (H2A) (H2B).

The state of tyrosine and phenylalanine residues in proteins analyzed by fourth-derivative spectrophotometry. Histone H1 and ribonuclease A.

The analysis of the absorption spectra of model compounds of tyrosine and phenylalanine residues by means of fourth-derivative spectrophotometry is able to separate the contribution of the two chromophores, thus allowing the study of each one. Fourth-derivative analysis resolves the two main vibrational bands of tyrosine, giving rise to two peaks which are sensitive to changes in the environment of the phenolic ring. The parameters obtained from the fourth-derivative spectra were found to depend on the strength of the hydrogen bonds formed by the OH group of tyrosine, as well as on the heterogeneity of tyrosine environments. It is also shown that the fourth-derivative tyrosine peaks are not perturbed by broad bands, such as that arising from ionized tyrosine chromophores. The peaks arising from the phenylalanine model, although less sensitive than those of tyrosine, were found to depend on the polarity of the environment. As a check of the method, it is applied to the study of tyrosine and phenylalanine residues of calf thymus histone H1 and bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A.